Call to cut carbon and make cities green - 25/03/09

Environmental groups are calling for more money to be spent on making urban areas greener rather than focusing on "grey" infrastructure such as road building.

According to the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (Cabe) and Natural England, some of the billions being spent on programmes such as road widening schemes should be used "greening" urban areas, which they say would tackle climate change and the recession.

The groups are calling for millions of trees to be planted and new parks, "green" roofs in towns and cities to be created and conservation projects to be supported.

They claim greener urban areas would help reduce the temperature in cities and reduce flooding risks by absorbing water from flash flooding.

Natural England and Cabe also say switching public spending to environmentally friendly projects would create more jobs as well as promoting healthy living through walking and cycling, which could reduce health problems such as obesity.

According to the groups, just £20 per person is spent on green spaces across the country, but £10.2 billion could be spent on road building and improvements, which could create a thousand new parks saving 1.2 million tonnes of carbon and delivering "multiple benefits".

Call to cut carbon and make cities green - 25/03/09

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